I've had the BYD for a year and a half now and never really thought much about it, but last winter I noticed the range dropping a ton. With 20 degrees colder, I'm losing like 150 km of range easily. Is it normal for electric cars' batteries to drop that much in cold or is something weird happening to mine?
It's normal for electric cars to lose 20-40% of range in winter because the battery performs worse in cold and the motor consumes more for heating, so losing 150 km in a Yuan Plus (which has pretty good range) doesn't sound crazy to me if the temperature difference is that big.
That said, if you notice it wasn't dropping that much last winter, it might be worth having a BYD technician take a look at the battery's health because it could also be degradation, though a year and a half is still early for that.
How many kilometers have you accumulated on the car? Because the loss you're describing sounds within what you'd expect from lithium-ion batteries in cold temperatures, where the chemistry simply works more slowly - some studies say that every 10 degrees colder can cost between 3-5% of temporary capacity, so losing 150 km out of the 400-500 the Yuan Plus should have isn't unreasonable.
I've seen similar cases with other electric cars in winter and it's more the norm: cold affects both battery efficiency and cabin heating consumption, which draws quite a bit more energy than air conditioning. If after two years the drop were even more pronounced (like losing double), then yeah, you'd want to have the battery checked, but for now it's probably nothing unusual.
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